Knight rider Sir Jason Kenny rolled away the stone in Tokyo and conceded he was a “little bit sad” to abdicate as king of Team GB's blazing saddles.
But as the seven-time Olympic champion announces his retirement from racing today, to take up a job as British Cycling's elite sprint coach, he admitted the chance to become the next generation's guru was too good to pass up.
Kenny, 33, rides into the sunset as Britain's greatest Olympian.
His stunning keirin gold in Japan six months ago was not just a fabulous way to roll the credits. It was pure Hollywood.
When the pizza delivery scooter pulled over with three laps to go, and Kenny disappeared over the horizon, he was riding the crust of a wave.
But after consulting his wife Dame Laura – the five-times Olympic champion and supermum who could yet overtake him to become the most decorated cyclist in their household – the Bolton Bullet yielded to Father Time.
Although he planned to keep competing until the Paris 2024 Games, Kenny's outlook changed when British Cycling advertised for a new podium sprint coach on LinkedIn and he submitted a speculative application.
Top brass at the 'medal factory' in Manchester couldn't believe their luck that the man who raised standards to unprecedented levels now wanted to be in charge of the bar.
Kenny, who was knighted in the New Year Honours, said: “It wasn’t an easy decision. I genuinely wanted to carry on to Paris, but I creak quite a lot these days and I always knew I wanted to go into coaching off the back of it.
“I am a little bit sad, to be honest, because all I’ve known is riding and competing, but I’m quite excited to get stuck in.
“When the job ad came up, and I ummed and aahhed a bit - I was full-time training at the time, but I’ve started to ache a lot more these days.
“I thought, I don’t even know if I’m going to make it to Paris, so I could commit for three years and get nothing out of it.
“This opportunity might not come round again. If they got a good coach they could be in the role for potentially 10 years, so I thought I’d go for it now. If I hadn’t got the job, I would have carried on racing in all likelihood.”
Kenny has retired once before, stepping away after his hat-trick of team sprint, individual sprint and keirin titles in Rio six years ago. But he didn't announce his decision – and then reversed it a year later.
This time, there will be no U-turns - and Kenny is finding the definitive end of the road much tougher to accept.
He said: “In Rio I was quite happy to see the back of it. But since coming back and being refreshed makes it a lot harder to walk away.”
But Kenny admits that startling breakaway in Tokyo was a thrilling way to sign off, saying: “I’m dead happy with that. It was really special. To do it on that bike, the last day of the Olympics, for me that’s a really special moment in time.
“If I could have picked a day to end on, that would be the one.”
Fellow knight of the realm and six-times Olympic champion Sir Chris Hoy, whose team sprint gold with Kenny and Jamie Staff launched a legend's Olympic career in Beijing 14 years ago, said: “I was really excited to hear that Jason has been appointed as the men’s sprint coach.
“He was a fantastic team-mate, an extraordinary athlete and I’m looking forward to seeing him translate his experiences over four Olympic Games into supporting the next generation of talented British riders to achieve their best.”
